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Posts tagged ‘Connection’

Apr 27

To Be Seen, To See

“How hidden the heart, Nance thought. How frightened we are of being known, and yet how desperately we long for it.”― Hannah Kent, The Good People

“We are all givers and receivers, we all need each other and are called to enrich each other.” – Pope Francis

My good friend Angi asked me to stop by yesterday to give me something.
She started art of needle felting recently.
She felted figures of Abby and Sasha for me, adding a tennis ball for Abby too – nailed it!
Beautiful detailed art, simple profound kindness.
Blown away!

In a world when we often feel unseen, we have the power to see each other.
What’s right in front of us.
To offer the generosity of seeing others, noticing, sharing.

That’s what Pope Francis did in and for the world.
That’s what Angi did in my world yesterday.
That’s what each of us can do each day in different ways.

Do not bypass, rush past, miss what and who is in front of you this day.
And let them know you see them.
We see ourselves when we see others too.

Kindness, acceptance, love feed the receiver and the giver.

“It’s beautiful when someone recognizes and appreciates us for who we are, for how we are, without trying to change us, and without any judgment. Unconditional acceptance is the truest form of love.”― Akiroq Brost

Feb 6

Not Knowing

“Without habit, the beauty of the world would overwhelm us. We’d pass out every time we saw— actually saw— a flower. Imagine if we only got to see a cumulonimbus cloud or Cassiopeia or a snowfall once a century: there’d be pandemonium in the streets. People would lie by the thousands in the fields on their backs.”― Anthony Doerr, Four Seasons in Rome

“In the end, I learned that the practice of Not-Knowing is the very ground of altruism, because it opens us up to a much wider horizon than our preconceptions could ever afford us and can let in connection and tenderness.”― Joan Halifax, Standing at the Edge: Finding Freedom Where Fear and Courage Meet

Friends.
Family.
Friends who are family.
Family who are friends.
Strangers and passerby’s.
What we don’t know is more than we do.
Take the time to ask and listen.
To assume nothing.
To be present, kind, a place of belonging.
Home.
Tender and soft as the flower of a petal.
Light as a cloud floating.
An open door.
Love well.

“The most important thing about a person is always the thing you don’t know.”― Barbara Kingsolver, The Lacuna

May 26

BeautiFULLY Human

“Agape is total love. It is the love that consumes the person who experiences it. Whoever knows and experiences agape learns that nothing else in the world is important – just love.― Paolo Coelho, The Pilgrimage

“To become fully human means learning to turn my gratitude for being alive into some concrete common good. It means growing gentler toward human weakness. It means practicing forgiveness of my and everyone else’s hourly failures to live up to divine standards. It means learning to forget myself on a regular basis in order to attend to the other selves in my vicinity. It means living so that “I’m only human” does not become an excuse for anything. It means receiving the human condition as blessing and not curse, in all its achingly frail and redemptive reality.” – Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

Stop scrolling.
Start connecting.
Use the phone to call or text at least one person in your circle each day.
A check in to reconnect.
A text that leads to a regular call to an in person real conversation.
There’s a loneliness epidemic.
We are each other’s cure.
Love each day through action, simple as a text and phone call.
A smile to the human who is working three jobs to make ends meet who hands you overpriced coffee for underpriced work.
Family and friends closest to you who may be struggling.
Do not pass by without stopping to look, listen, inquire, listen some more.
Let’s regain our humanity.
In simple acts done lovingly.
Discover the joy in giving, thinking of yourself less, and making someone’s day.
Be fully human, beautiFULLY human today.
Be the garden where others can bloom.
Cast light.

“Love isn’t a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.”― Fred Rogers, The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember

Feb 2

2-2-22

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” – Marcel Proust

On this day of “2”s – second month, second day, twenty second year – may we be prompted to move out of self into other. To the collective, to us. Expand, seek, reach out, connect with others. Partake on this shared journey, knowing that we are not alone, present for others, listening, walking along side in companionship.

When we cast light, the light shines back on us twofold. Compounding, multiplying, exponential. Go out of self and see other people. Tell them you see them with a smile, a hello, an invitation to go ahead in line, an embrace, a prayer for their well-being.

Kindness, concern, empathy, laughter, joy, understanding open our hearts, expose our souls, extend our hands to a wide world that needs our attention and love, one person at a time.

“Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.” – Mother Teresa

Dec 10

Conversations and Connection

“If you don’t talk it out, you act it out.” – Joseph Grenny

It’s been a while since I read the book Crucial Conversations by Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, Emily Gregory. With the release of the third edition in October, Joseph Grenny was on the What’s Essential podcast this week.

The seven principles include:

  1. Start with the heart – get the right focus
  2. Learn to look – know when it’s unsafe
  3. Make it safe – facilitate an open dialogue
  4. Master your stories – stay in dialogue despite negative feelings
  5. State your path – share your views persuasively
  6. Explore others’ path – be a good listener
  7. Move to action – convert dialogue to results

The assumptions we make, the conclusions we come to before starting, the narrow view we take comfort in shape our world, making it small. Choose your words, listen for understanding rather than waiting to state your case and dare to have conversations to learn, connect and expand.

When we let go of the need to be right, not mistaking opinion for fact, we expand and deepen our relationships and invite civility and connection back into our daily lives. Give your ego a break today. Turn on your empathy GPS. Cast light into the crevices of your thinking to see the same in a new light.

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” – Viktor E. Frankl